Monday, December 11, 2006

Pennsylvania Markets Part II

The next stop was at the cookie walk at the UCC church in Abbottstown at 9:00 am. When you walk in the door you are issued a box and plastic gloves from the ladies of the church and after that you simply select from tray upon tray of delicious cookies. There were delicate sand tarts, meringue drops, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, the ubiqitous frosted pretzels and ever so delicate pecan tassies. A seemingly endless supply kept emerging from the church kitchen as volunteers filled the fast emptying trays. When it was all said and done I weighed in at $18.80 and believe me it was a bargain.

From there we were off to Peter’s Orchard by way of York Springs. We wanted to stop and look at an 18th century Episcopal church there. Christ Chapel of York Springs was built in 1736. It is a simple, meeting house style brick building. It is no longer in use, but we lucked into meeting a local named Noel and his wife Helen who let us in and shared some of the history. We had been puzzled as to why in this land of Lutherans there had been such an early Episcopal church. It turns out that the “springs” had attracted Anglicans from the Baltimore area. The hope was that if they built a church it would encourage the tourist trade.

It was a VERY cold morning and the church seemed almost colder inside than out. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

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